After publishing, Can Financial Samurai Be The Next Billion Dollar FinTech, I got a lot of feedback from readers about what I should do. After checking out the poll results and reading all the comments, I’ve come to the conclusion that a lifestyle business is absolutely the way to go!

For most of us, blogging is a fun way to connect with other folks and earn a few extra bucks. What I’ve noticed about blogs who pursue riches is that they ultimately lose their voice. Once you lose your voice, you lose your brand. And once you lose your brand, there’s no more fun because you’re simply doing everything for money.

WHY A LIFESTYLE BUSINESS IS BETTER THAN A BIG BUSINESS

1) You remain the Queen Or King of your business. Instead of reporting to investors how your business is doing, you can make your own decisions and go at your own pace. There is no pressure to please anybody but yourself. In property terms, bringing on investors is like buying a condo. You may be the boss of your condo, but you’ve still got to follow the rules of the condo association.

2) You maintain your voice and brand. There’s only one you. Once you try to blog for the sake of making money, you end up hiring a bunch of writers that dilute your voice. You then start hawking credit cards and affiliate products that you don’t use. Having a great voice online is priceless because it opens doors to many other opportunities. You also gain a tremendous amount of respect from other people.

3) You maintain maximum flexibility. Running a lifestyle business doesn’t mean you can’t scale up. You simply scale up on your own time. If you want to go travel for four weeks, you can go right ahead. If you want to work with some consulting clients, there’s nobody stopping you. Freedom and flexibility cannot be appreciated enough.

4) You don’t grow just for the sake of growing. Growth is the key to creating a big company. So many companies spend boatloads of money, hire lots of people, and invest in products all for the sake of growth. Then they blow themselves up because they didn’t grow in a prudent way. How many startups have you heard go through millions and millions of dollars only to end up with nothing?

5) You don’t have to deal with other people if you don’t want to. There’s a great saying that hell is other people. Once you grow a business, you’ve got to manage egos, motivate employees, worry about retention and all sorts of stressful stuff. If you have a lifestyle business, you keep your eye on the ball and stay lean.

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE A LIFESTYLE BUSINESS

You can make a lot of money with a lifestyle business. We all know there are plenty of bloggers out there pulling down $500,000, $1,000,000, $5,000,000+ in revenue a year from their sites. Sure, some of them might be spending half their revenue on advertising to gain traffic, but they’re still earning a lot of money!

My one problem running an online business is that I reinvest hardly any of my profits back into growing my business. Instead, I either invest the proceeds elsewhere or spend the money on living life! I already made my money in my previous career and my passive income streams are producing enough to live a comfortable life. As a result, my hunger to make more money just isn’t as high as it could be.

It’s much easier to create a sustainable lifestyle business than grow a massive business that might one day sell for tens of millions of dollars or more. It often takes an army to create something huge. I’ve spoke to plenty of entrepreneurs and nine out of ten tell me they would much rather own a lifestyle business making enough to live a comfortable life than go their route.

As we look forward to 2016, I think it’s a good idea to regain our business mindset if we’ve been too lax. At the same time, let’s not lose our voices. So many sites that sold have become completely uninteresting. Do your best not to give up your income producing lifestyle business. You’re sitting on a much more valuable asset than you realize in this low interest rate environment!

Finally, once you’ve built a lifestyle business, you always have the optionality to build that mega business!

Would you rather go the lifestyle business route or try and hit a home run? Have you ever thought to think that your lifestyle business might already very well be a home run?

STARTING A MONEY MAKING BLOG

I never thought I’d be able to quit my job in 2012 just three years after starting Financial Samurai. But by starting one financial crisis day in 2009, Financial Samurai actually makes more than my entire passive income total that took 15 years to build. If you enjoy writing, creating, connecting with people online, and enjoying more freedom, learn how you can set up a WordPress blog in 15 minutes like this one.

Leverage the 3+ billion internet users and build your brand online. There are professional bloggers now who make way more than bankers, doctors, lawyers, and entrepreneurs while having much more fun, much more freedom, and doing less work. Get started. You never know where the journey will take you!

My favorite investment opportunity for 2017 – 2021 is RealtyShares. They are the best real estate crowdfunding platform around. I’m looking to invest $250,000 surgically through them in the heartland of America.

Financial Samurai is the founder of the Yakezie Network. Through continuing education and hard work, Sam believes everyone is able to achieve financial independence and give back to the community with abundance. Together we'll slice through money's mysteries!

Personally I’m kind of “splitting the difference”. I run a number of different blogs – all about topics I’m passionate about and interested in. On some I add new posts all the time, on others a post far less often. But I love each one.

As someone who works in digital marketing I have a fair handle on what works and what doesn’t, so I’m slowly building up my online assets, and enjoying myself all the way.

I don’t expect to sell out for “tens of millions” in the end but I *would* consider selling some of my sites in the future when the time is right. For now, I’m happy just to connect with others, write about what I love and build my following (plus earn some ad dollars here and there).

I honestly wouldn’t mind if I never sell them – it’s my passion as much as anything – but for the right price…well, never say never about selling ;-)

I’m going the lifestyle route after leaving my corporate job. I value lifestyle a heck of a lot more than just growing for the sake of growing and maximizing profits. Running a lifestyle business will simplify my life and not have to answer to anybody: investors, creditors, or a boss. Besides, why not create a life you don’t want to retire from?

I think you’re making the right decision! I’m definitely a lifestyle person. I feel good about working hard, but I would be too stressed out and unhappy if I had investors breathing down by back all the time. Every time I listen to the Startup podcast, I’m so relieved I don’t have to deal with the stress and problems that they do. I find their journey fascinating though and I have mad respect for people who get into Y combinator and want to build the next giant. That just isn’t for me personally. There’s a LOT that can still be accomplished in any lifestyle business, which is awesome!!

“Hell is other people!” I always think of this line before wanting to go big.

I remember in 2010-2011, for two years I ran a really fun and profitable business for all the Yakezie Members. Then some members started getting greedy and taking the business I created for themselves and replicating it and charging more. It’s amazing how money changes people for the worse.

But I’m also thankful, because seeing what happened made me focus on other business opportunities, and focus on myself, instead of always other people. Always a silver lining! :)

Wise words. I see many clients tremendously happy with lifestyle businesses. For example, a gentlemen I know has a golf club rental business and is making close to $25,000/month. He has already fully funded his child’s college fund and is set to retire within 10 years. Seems like a lot more fun than a buddy’s Dad is having who runs a FINTECH company that was taken public around 3 years ago. His net worth is around $150 million, but has lots of family drama and takes anxiety medication.

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